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Dynamic Public Speaker. Lifelong Civil Rights Worker. Servant of the People. These powerful labels are frequently used to describe one of the most dedicated, hard-working and energetic legislators in the history of the Georgia General Assembly. He is also known around the world as the man who changed the Georgia flag. He is a lifelong member of the Pleasant Grove Baptist Church in Warrenton, Georgia and his Atlanta church home is the West Hunter Street Baptist Church in the West End. He currently represents House District 63 in the Georgia General Assembly.

Representative Tyrone L. Brooks was born on October 10, 1945 to Ruby and Mose Brooks in Washington, Wilkes County, Georgia. He was reared in Warrenton, Georgia, where he was educated in the public school system. He received further education at Boggs Academy, Keysville, Georgia; Lassalle Institute, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Howard University, Washington, D. C.; Atlanta University; and The Harvard University John F. Kennedy School of Government, Cambridge, Massachusetts. In May of 2001, the John Marshall School of Law bestowed on him his first honorary degree of Doctor of Jurisprudence.

Tyrone Brooks began his career in public service as an activist for civil and human rights at the age of 15 as a volunteer with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). He became a full-time staffer of the organization in 1967 under Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Under Dr. King, Rev. Ralph David Abernathy, Rev. Hosea Williams and Dr. Joseph E. Lowery, he served in many positions, nationally and locally. Brooks is president of the Georgia Association of Black Elected Officials (GABEO), a SCLC affiliate. He has been at the forefront and involved in the struggle for freedom, justice and equality since 1960 and has been jailed 66 times for civil rights work.

Elected in 1980 as a member of the Georgia House of Representatives, Brooks serves on the following committees: Economic Development and Tourism, Governmental Affairs and Retirement. A former member and officer of the powerful House Appropriations Committee and Special Rules (Policy), during his tenure as state representative he has consistently created and supported legislation to help the poor and oppressed people in our society. He led the successful movement to reactivate the town of Keysville, Georgia in spite of the many threats against his life. He also led the campaign against Apartheid in South Africa by championing legislation to divest all public funds controlled by the state of Georgia from that former brutal, inhumane government. He sponsored legislation calling for the unconditional release of Nelson Mandela. Along with Dr. Ralph David Abernathy, Dick Gregory and many others, Brooks was arrested at the South African Embassy in Washington, D. C. on Thanksgiving Day November 1976 and jailed for protesting the massacre in Soweto while calling for the end to the Apartheid government.

Tyrone Brooks has worked to eradicate racism, sexism, illiteracy and injustice. Some of the laws he has helped pass include the Antiterrorism law, the establishment of the Positive Employment and Community Help (PEACH) Program, and the Reapportionment Max Black Plan. His House Bill 16 resulted in winning an almost twenty-year battle in the General Assembly to change the Georgia state flag. It became law January 31, 2001. In 2005, he sponsored a package of legislation to repeal and purge Jim Crow era segregation laws from the Georgia Constitution and legal code. In 2006, his House Bill 101 allowed law enforcement officers the opportunity to buy back service prior to 1976, which was denied to them because of race.

Tyrone Brooks has received numerous awards and honors for outstanding leadership and service from many civic, religious, government, media, educational and civil rights organizations including the NAACP, SCLC, SCLC/W.O.M.E.N,Inc., History Makers, Georgia Coalition of Black Women, Inc., National Baptist Convention, The International Ministers & Lay Association of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, Georgia Legislative Black Caucus, Georgia Association of Black Elected Officials, Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, City of Atlanta, The Atlanta Voice Newspaper, The John Marshall School of Law, WVEE V-103, The Auburn Avenue Research Library on African-American Culture and History, American Association of Affirmative Action, as well as several fraternities and sororities. He was selected Man of the Year in 2007 by The Georgia Informer Newspaper. He is a 2008 Inductee in the International Civil Rights Walk of Fame.

Representative Brooks is an active member of the Georgia Legislative Black Caucus, President of the Georgia Association of Black Elected Officials, co-founder of the Coalition for the People's Agenda, and serves in many other organizations. He works every day in the movement towards full political empowerment of African-Americans in the "American Body Politic" trying to register and educate 600,000 unregistered African-Americans in Georgia and 7 million throughout the United States of America. Tyrone Brooks has dedicated his life to the achievement of complete justice and equality.